Football transfer rumours: Arsenal's Héctor Bellerin to Barcelona?

Despite speculation linking him with a move to Arsenal, Barcelona or Milan, reports from Italy suggest Lorenzo Insigne is simply playing hard-ball with Napoli and has no intention of leaving the Serie A club any time soon. Reports earlier this week claimed that Arsenal had deployed scouts to Verona last weekend to see the 25-year-old score an absolute purler in his side’s 3-1 win over Chievo at the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi, but their reports on the striker are likely to be rendered redundant as Insigne has no plans to go anywhere.

Talks between Insigne’s “people” and Napoli’s bean-counters were believed to have reached an impasse over his £80,000-per-week wage demands, but the club chairman, Aurelio De Laurentiis, is now eager to have his star striker ink a new contract containing a hefty release clause. Upon his controversial departure from Napoli for Juventus last summer, former Napoli hero Gonzalo Higuaín claimed that he no longer had any kind of relationship with De Laurentiis, stating, “I couldn’t stand another minute with him.” Losing another fan favourite so quickly might not be a blot the Italian movie mogul necessarily wants on his copybook.

In other bad news for Arsenal, Wednesday’s edition of the Spanish sports daily, Mundo Deportivo, proclaimed that Héctor Bellerin has been identified as the No1 summer target of an increasingly desperate Barcelona. The club’s search for competent full-backs has been well documented and unsuccessful, and now it seems they’ve turned their gaze on a 21-year-old who originally learned his trade in their academy, La Masia, before being spirited away to London by Arsène Wenger.

Arsenal and Manchester United were among several Premier League clubs to send scouts to watch the Porto striker André Silva in action against Juventus on Wednesday night. With talent-spotters from Manchester City and Middlesbrough also present, the 21-year-old, who Arsenal unsuccessfully attempted to sign during the January transfer window, lasted only 30 minutes of his side’s Champions League round of 16 first-leg defeat before succumbing to injury. Silva has 21 goals in 33 appearances to his name already this season and could change hands for up to £50m this summer.

Reports from deepest Hertfordshire say the Alavés full-back Kiko Femenía has agreed to a summer move to Watford. The 26-year-old Spaniard’s contract with the Basque country club will expire this summer and Femenía is already understood to have promised his future to Watford after speaking to Walter Mazzerri earlier this month.

Wayne Rooney’s future at Manchester United remains up in the air, with reports from our man on the Manchester beat stating that the striker would prefer to sit tight at Old Trafford until the end of the season, but could be tempted by a big money move should an offer arise before the Chinese Super League’s transfer window closes next Tuesday. Rooney isn’t the only Manchester United player attracting interest from China, where Shandong Luneng, managed by former Fulham gaffer Felix Magath, are winking seductively in the direction of Ashley Young.